Flight Attendant unions have unveiled a new called “2Hot2Cold” to track and report uncomfortable temperatures on flights which is now available for download in the app store for both iPhone and Android.

The data will apparently be used to develop a study and lobby the Department of Transportation for a general guideline on cabin temperature.

According to flight attendant union AFA extreme cabin temperatures, both hot and cold, pose a health risk for passengers and crew which hasn’t received much attention so far.

On Wednesday at an event at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., representatives from both AFA and Local 556 will unveil a new app they have jointly developed called “2Hot2Cold,” now available for download by both airline crews and interested passengers for use on both iOS and Android devices. …

As the name suggests, the app allows users to file reports on airplane cabin temps deemed unacceptable by passengers flying in a particularly hot or cold cabin or by those stuck in overly hot or chilly planes while at the gate deplaning and boarding passengers — the process known as a “turn” in the airline industry.

A spokeswoman for AFA today said airplane crews in recent years have become increasingly concerned about cabin temperatures — a matter that has gotten buried amid all the other factors increasingly impacting airline travel today.

Ideally, flight attendants at AFA and Southwest would like to see the United States Department of Transportation establish a specific set of guidelines for acceptable cabin temperature. The 2Hot2Cold app is part of that effort.

The new app allows users to send information on cabin temperature, specific flight details, plane location and even the tail number of an aircraft to a central data collection point. The information then will be collated and presented to the DOT to support AFA’s and Local 556’s efforts to establish parameters for cabin temperatures. …

But tens of thousands of flight attendants believe that, despite the many variables, having a set of standards backed by the DOT will help in addressing an important problem of some complexity affecting the health and comfort of huge numbers of crew and passengers.

Yes – some airlines are notorious for both extremely hot and extremely cold cabin temperatures. For example on Thai Airways and Lufthansa I frequently get steamed while on United flights it’s easy to freeze to an ice cube during a longer flight.

There is however one commonality that especially flight attendants should know about: It’s very hard, better said pretty much impossible to please everybody. Each passenger and crew member has an individual comfort level and the cabin temperature can definitely be controlled so it’s much easier for the cabin crew to work around this than the passengers.

Conclusion

I highly doubt the DOT will get involved in this debate and dictate airlines what temperatures are suitable. This really goes above and beyond of what a regulator should have it’s hands in. Sounds like a bit union booha during a slow news period to show their members they’re “doing something for their dough” so to speak.

If you want to check out the app “2Hot2Cold” and input some data you have to download it from your app store free of charge.